Shanghai changes housing tax

The Shanghai city government is offering lower taxation for the average home purchase after revising the standards of “ordinary” houses on Thursday.

However, experts are cautious about whether the new standards will help “wait-and-see” homebuyers make a faster decision.

An apartment located within the city’s Inner Ring Road and priced at less than 3.3 million yuan will be defined as “ordinary” houses, according to an announcement from the municipal government on Thursday.

Similarly, houses located between the Inner Ring Road and the Outer Ring Road and priced at less than 2 million yuan, and those located outside the Outer Ring Road and at a cost of less than 1.6 million yuan will all be regarded as “ordinary” houses since March 1.

The current standard for ordinary housing was framed more than three years ago in November 2008.

According to the framework, houses located within the Inner Ring Road and priced at less than 2.45 million yuan, those between the Inner Ring Road and the Outer Ring Road and costing less than 1.4 million yuan, and those outside the Outer Ring Road and priced at no more than 0.98 million yuan are designated as ordinary houses.

“Over the past three years, both the city’s home prices and consumer products prices have changed a lot, and that means a large number of houses no longer belong to the current ordinary house standard.

This criteria adjustment serves the purpose of keeping up with the actual market changes, and will increase the supply of ordinary homes,” said the announcement.